Currently, there are two cases pending in the United States Supreme Court concerning cell phone searches by law enforcement officials. The first, Riley v. California, involves a police search of a cell phone during a traffic stop that eventually led to the conviction of alleged gang member and college student David Riley after evidence on the phone suggested he participated in a drive-by shooting.
The second, United States v. Wurie, involves a suspected drug dealer whose cell phone allowed police to gather evidence linking him to illegal drugs. Unlike with Riley, Brima Wurie’s case was overturned, thus the government is the one appealing.
Both cases involve an important question: Can police officers search your cell phone without a warrant after you are arrested?
Currently, possessions can be searched without a warrant during an arrest to prevent destruction of evidence and to protect officers from weapons. Civil rights attorneys involved in both cases have basically argued that cell phones fall into neither category, which makes them protected possessions.
The government argues that cell phones are often critical tools in the commission of a crime, and thus should be able to be searched without a warrant because of the implications they can have toward establishing a case against the accused.
The Supreme Court will likely try to find a middle ground between either option as the result of both cases. There are essentially three questions that will be answered:
- When can a search be initiated?
- What are the limits, or scope, of the search?
- What evidence can be used by law enforcement?
The third is particularly important, since a wide variety of possible evidence can exist on a phone. You can have call logs, pictures, video, chat, and other potentially-incriminating pieces of evidence on your phone. You can also have a large volume of private data that would be protected under privacy laws. Which evidence, then, can be used by police when they search your phone?
We’ll follow both cases as they progress and provide an update on their conclusions later this summer.